pmdawn
This movie is a study on the lack of communication between people in a micro-scale (in this case a small town). It's like a radical view of today's pharmaceutically-enhanced society (particularly America). The adults are self-obsessed, superficial and completely ignore each other and specially their kids, who are kept from being anarchists by pills.But what happens when there are no more pills? Reality kicks in, and the movie goes on to expose the "interaction" between the residents of this small town amidst a bigger plot, the grief of a shy teenager who is forced to face the truth.I was specially surprised with Lou Taylor Pucci's performance after watching Thumbsucker (a somewhat similar movie, but IMHO a superior one), showing he has a bright future ahead of him. The cast here is very good and does its job superbly. The direction is very subtle and if you're not paying attention you might miss some of the most fun little details.This is not a particularly disturbing film, though, because there is a sense of naivety and superficiality throughout the whole thing. In some places it reminded me of "Bully" and in others, "American Beauty". If you're looking for an off-beat, weird little film with a good cast and a message, this is not a bad option at all.
annevejb
At February 2008 I rated this alongside The Quiet as the best of the first four of Cammie's features as a young woman, but Stranger as the quality Cammie acting in the four. Now I also rate this as quality acting as well. I find it difficult to rate the acting of Camilla Belle as my first impressions tend to be that it is worse than it actually is, as if there is a barrier. My problem with Jack and Rose is just the storytelling style, not the acting at all. The Quiet, for me this starts with Belle's acting feeling squashed, memories of Trachtenberg at the very start and end of Clausen's Pier, also Belle in 10000BC. To really enjoy the Quiet I have to apply tolerance to the first ten minutes. I rate Annie 2 and Practical Magic even higher than these, but they are two very different types of amazing story. Few features attain the level of Practical Magic even though it does not seem to attract many positive professional reviews. Griffin Dunne's Fierce People also gets a dearth of positive attention, except from fans, despite it being as amazing as Practical Magic. It is as if there is a barrier there. * There is a question of just what this feature is about and that could be a rather personal thing. I found the DVD's commentary and Making Of to give useful extra detail for musing on one's own personalised interpretation. This is a way better commentary than most. They even help me to smile more when Fiennes first notices the purposes of the school mural. To quote a Katherine Applegate 'Making Out' novel, reality is humorous for those who think but tragic for those who feel. Chumscrubber and The Quiet have the tragedy, but in a way that allows it to be tolerable. There does not appear to be a prescription for the insanity that abounds here, but how Jamie and Cammie develop can be taken as a hint.
johnniegirl06
I can hardly begin to describe how much I love this movie. If it were a man, I would marry him and bear 20 of his children. The story was good, the acting was excellent, the casting was flawless, the overall atmosphere was perfection, the intended audience reactions were felt (whether you wanted to feel them or not), and there were enough subtleties to make you feel better about yourself as a relative-to-body-size-large-brained-primate for catching them.Every actor in The Chumscrubber will go on from this movie and become new people and new faces all over again, never to be remembered strictly as "that guy in The Chumscrubber". This is not to say that their characters were not memorable or dynamic; it is quite the opposite, for their characters were incredibly and intensely dramatic composites. It is more that they themselves, as actors and actresses, define the roles they play rather than the roles defining their careers. Truly, Mark Hamill, for example, will always be remembered as Luke Skywalker (in fact, I'm sure many people don't know him as anything but "Luke"), but there are very few who would define Harrison Ford as simply Han Solo.Unlike many recent movies, with several different climaxes (taking away from the implied orgasmic excitement of a grand finale), the story builds from a disturbingly calm beginning to the tension of a Parkinson's patient constructing a card house. The so-called-sane's irrationality outlining the few truly sane individuals' frustration in the movie is enough to make the viewer want to punch someone in the face just to release the tension. With orchestral magnificence, all the players contribute to the winding array of viewpoints with their own unique (but commonly mad) personalities binding their fates.All the right ingredients were in place to create the ultimate cake of disaster: the absurdity of trivial obsessions; self-absorbed hypocrites; the influence of "the mob"; uncontrollable, chip-on-their-shoulder teens; and, of course, drugs in suburbs. Ironically, each of the above mentioned function perfectly together without interruption or question...until one drop of sanity is thrown into the mix.
moviemaster
This is a movie with tremendous potential, but because of an incredibly poor choice for a title, has had little traction. It will undoubtedly be a cult classic. But it was a box office bomb. "Chumbscrubber" means nothing to most people. It means something now to anyone who has seen the movie, but I'm not sure that was the audience Mr. Posin sought. For the hip 16-20 age group, it may have been too complex and depressing. For anyone older, the idea of a movie based on a video game character is a put off. Then there's the problem of no sex, not good for a lot of young males. There's a little violence, at the end. What there is a lot of is talking and that usually requires a more mature audience to want to listen and ponder. The acting is, for the most part, superb. If one is going to make an art house movie, he has to cater to that crowd. Don't mix in video games. If one is going to appeal to teenagers, then do so... give them lots of action, sex and a car chase or two. First, figure out the audience desired. But bravo for trying to make something perceptive. Obviously most people in this country aren't perceptive or we wouldn't have such a dunce for Pres.
AD
